An Interview with Oderus Urungus

by Eric Walls

It’s hard to believe that for over 25 years now, GWAR – the Scumdogs of the Universe - have been destroying ears and stages across the planet Earth. That's a full quarter century of mayhem from a band whom many dismiss as a joke. I mean, grown men dressed in grotesque and explicitly obscene costumes who claim to be from outer space and the fathers of the human race who are here to fight off an endless onslaught of bad dudes sent from across the universe to ravage this fair planet (and kill everything in their path along the way)? Certainly, you must be joking. Well, the joke’s on you ‘cause GWAR have been laughing all the way to the bank since 1988.

Musically, their blend of punk and metal stands toe to toe with the best in the genre and anyone who has ever stood witness to the epic extravaganza that is a GWAR live show while being drenched in copious amounts blood and cum thrown, shot, and squirted from the stage would certainly attest to the fact that GWAR is arguably the most entertaining band in heavy metal. If you’ve never had the honor, or the cahones, to take part in that particular orgy of blood, guts, and metal, well, you don’t know what the hell you’re missing. Battle Maximus is album number 13 from the Warriors from Beyond Space and Time and their first without longtime Scumdog Flattus Maximus. (The character Flattus Maximus has been officially retired from the GWAR lineup after the death of Cory Smoot, the 5th and longest running Flattus, while on tour with GWAR in 2011).

New Scumdog Pustulus Maximus (Brent Purgason, also of the infamous Cannabis Corpse) has stepped into Flattus’ big shoes to fill the lead guitar slot and carries the torch ably and admirably. The album fits seamlessly alongside the rest of the bands’ catalog and if you’re a fan you will certainly not be disappointed in the least. If you’re not a fan then this album probably won’t change your mind, but, you know what? Fuck you; GWAR rules. I recently had the pleasure to speak with the one and only Oderus Urungus himself, lead vocals and lead mouthpiece of GWAR, about the new album:

Q: Oderus! Good to talk to you. You guys have a new album coming out, Battle Maximus. In the intro you talk about this Jizzmoglobin coming back through time. Who or what is this Jizzmoglobin?

Oderus Urungus – Well, it’s not a “him”. It’s not a personality. It’s a physical substance. It’s basically the stuff that Oderus and the rest of GWAR have in their balls. The stuff of life, if you will. It’s what makes a corpse get up and walk around, become a living human being until, of course, it is dry of Jizzmoglobin. Now, Jizzmoglobin is the source of considerable power. With Jizzmoglobin you can perform metamorphosis on any kind of flesh and indeed even using this power you can beat death itself and enjoy immortality and this is what GWAR uses to do so. Now, the reason it comes up on this album is once again we have a nuclear powered, super-villainous shithead dude named Mr. Perfect (no, not the wrestler) and he’s coming from the future to harvest GWAR’s immortality through our Jizzmoglobin. Now, that is the back story behind the new record, but don’t worry, you don’t need to understand any of that. That’s just an excuse to make another great metal album!

Q: As if you needed an excuse to do that! Now, let’s talk about some of the songs on the new record. “Madness at the Core of Time”, what’s going on there?

Oderus – That’s kinda reminiscent of things that happened back in the universe before we were banished to Earth. Beyond that, I would say, it kinda sets the tone for the record. It tramples its way out of the starting gate with a mindless ferocity that lets the listener know that GWAR is not fucking around on this record. We’re gonna come back at you twice as hard, twice as heavy, twice as vicious as ever and hopefully we’ll be able to maintain that level of intensity throughout. “Madness at the Core of Time” – it sums up the whole album, really.

Q: So, “Bloodbath”. What’s going on there?

Oderus – That’s just kind of a rumination of the sudden, tragic yet oddly liberating aspects and qualities of unexpected death.

Q: One of my favorite tracks on the album is “They Swallowed the Sun”. What’s happening in that song?

Oderus – This is another chapter in the story of GWAR’s struggles against Mr. Perfect. It details his attempt to make a gigantic machine, a huge engine which he will attach to the Earth that will be powered by a cocoon of solar panels that will enshroud your world. He will actually drive the Earth out of its orbit and swallow the power of the sun!

Q: Yikes!

Oderus – Yeah!

Q: So, “Raped at Birth”. That’s a pretty bold statement there. Tell me about that one.
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Oderus – Well, that’s pretty self-explanatory, really. It details my birth as a Scumdog. I was in the simsa (sic?) womb for many years. I was born fully clothed and armored into a giant gladiatorial arena where gigantic, hideous creatures attempted to butt rape me, but I was given a sword. It was a simple choice, really. Kill your way out of rape!

Q: So, you didn’t get raped?

Oderus – Well, there was some mild penetration, but I was able to hack my way clear of it and in doing so I joined the Scumdogs of the Universe!

Q: The next song is “I, Bonesnapper”. You aren’t doing the lead vocals on this one. Who are we hearing there?

Oderus – That is my good buddy, Bonesnapper, the slightly mentally challenged cave troll. Actually, he’s smarter than the average cave troll, they’re usually pretty stupid. He’s regaling us with some strange story of his origin as some sort of Slave Ship Slave Master kinda crazy troll from outer space thing. You’d probably have to talk to him about it to get more details but I thought he gave a slamming vocal performance.

Q: Indeed! The next track is “Mr. Perfect”. That’s the super villain on this record. What’s going on in this track?

Oderus – This one details the story of Mr. Perfect, the latest super powered shithead who wants to steal the power of immortality from GWAR by draining all the Jizzmoglobin from my nutsack. But, considering that Mr. Perfect is actually from the future he has to travel back in time to do so. That’s another one of the themes we are exploring on this record, how time goes backwards, forwards, sideways all simultaneously.

Q: Gotcha. Another track that I found interesting was “Falling”. Now this is almost a ballad, which one wouldn’t expect from GWAR. Would you venture to call it that?

Oderus – Yeah, that just kinda came out. It was fun, a ballad yes, perhaps. “Falling” basically means dying and it’s a song about the nature of death and you don’t even know what’s happening to you until the bottom completely falls out. It’s not like the rest of the songs on the album and I guess that’s why we put it closer to the end, but I think it’s refreshing to have such change up.

Q: The last song on the record is “Fly Now”. So, do you guys defeat Mr. Perfect at the end here? Or, do you not want to let that cat out of the bag yet?

Oderus – Well, you know, the struggle continues. We are going to be bringing our fight to audiences here in the United States and Canada soon enough. The war against Mr. Perfect will be waged across the surface of this planet for the next couple of years, I would assume. So, the war continues and who can say whether GWAR will triumph or not, but so far we’re holding our own against the asshole.